Why Khader Adnan matters

It is very disturbing to think about the fact that a human being in Palestine has decided to die from starvation rather than to be subjected any longer to the injustice and indignity that is the continued illegal occupation of Palestine. Khader Adnan, a Palestinian resistance activist mounted a hunger strike in December 2011 after being arrested at his home in the West Bank and placed under administrative detention in an Israeli jail without charge or trial. He has been without food or water for more than 64 days and many are saying that he has reached a point where his bodily functions cannot be restored, and so his death is imminent.

When I decided this morning that I wanted to write something about Mr. Adnan, I spent more than a few minutes trying to figure out exactly what I would like to say. There is so much to say about the fact that we, the people of the world, are being forced again to witness yet another act of Israeli sadism. It is almost daily now that Israel is carrying out a kidnapping, a killing, storming and desecrating Muslim and Christian holy sites, illegally confiscating land, poisoning water wells and destroying Palestinian agriculture, among other crimes. The list of daily atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people keeps getting longer, while the patience of most decent people in the world is getting shorter. It is as if Israel is saying to the world that not only will it not abide by any law other than its Talmudic law, it will not even recognize the humanity of the approximately 98% of the world’s population who are not Jewish. I’ll explain more about that later.

Israel’s appeals court decided to review Khader’s case, but it will not be reviewed immediately, meaning there is a possibility that the review will be meaningless. The timing of the review is to be counted among Israel’s other acts of cruelty and inhumanness. Nothing prevented Israel from having this review sooner, and nothing prevents Israel from reviewing the case immediately. It seems Israel, as when it boarded a humanitarian aid ship in international waters several years ago, and subsequently killed 9 humanitarian aid activists by blowing out their brains at close range with automatic weapons, gets a kick out of shock and awe killings. Killings that not only turn our stomachs and bring tears to our eyes, but also remind us in the harshest ways, that Gentile life simply does not matter to the Jewish state.

Israel’s killing of Khader Adnan by hunger strike is proof that not only does Israel refuse to recognize the humanity of non-Jews; as far as they are concerned the life of the Palestinian Gentile Khader Adnan simply does not matter. After all, Khader Adnan is only one of perhaps millions of Palestinians who have, since 1948 been subjected to numerous massacres and daily humiliation carried out by Israel. Israel kills with impunity, while the US, EU and the UN do nothing but call for Palestinian restraint.

For this reason, I will write about Khader Adnan as a Palestinian and as a human being, and why his life matters.

Perhaps very few people in today’s world would say that a person born under Israeli occupation and who has lived as a captive all of their lives could have much value. Khader Adnan didn’t attend or graduate from Yale or Harvard. His parents are not fake Jewish royalty. He is a Palestinian, an Arab and a Muslim, three of the most loathed and feared characteristics that can be attributed to anyone. It could only be worse for him if he were Black or Brown.

He is poor and to seal his fate and further torment his destiny, he is also a leader in the Palestinian resistance. This alone is a cause for death in the eyes of most Israelis. As far as Israel is concerned, anyone who dare resist Israel’s domination and control is automatically doomed. And if that resistance involves arms, or a willingness to take up arms against Israel, in the eyes of Israel and its supporters, you are also a terrorist, which means in today’s world, that you not only lack any human value, you have no rights, not even a right to life.

Israel’s repulsion to terrorism does not include Jewish terrorism. I could fill several pages with a list of acts of Jewish terrorism carried out against gentiles; the most recent perhaps is the death of the African American singer Whitney Houston who many believe was killed by Zionist Jewish operatives here in the US. They believe her possible murder was an act of revenge for her refusing to shake the hand of then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, whose publicly extended hand was publicly rejected by Houston, who backed away. I mention this only to deny those who will mistakenly attribute Israel’s pretend aversion to terrorism to morality. Israel’s so called war on terrorism has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with Jewish supremacism. Their Talmud says that if a goyim or gentile kills a Jew, he or she must die, but if a Jew kills a gentile, or goyim no harm is done.

By allowing Khader Adnan to die from starvation, Israel is sending the Palestinian people and in fact the entire non Jewish world the message that if we dare to resist their over lordship, we must die. They are teaching us that even if we kill ourselves, whether through starvation or suicide bombings that in fact they did kill us, because they left no other options. It goes without saying of course, that Israel prefers hunger strikers and peaceful protesters to suicide bombers, since the suicide bombers used to also kill Jews which reminds us that in both birth and death, the human being is indistinguishable. None of us are hatched from eggs, immaculate conceptions, or descended from the heavens. We also all die, and are killed by the same types of misfortunes.

Khader Adnan matters because he is a human being, created by God. He was created with a soul that had a destiny attached to it. We don’t yet know the destiny of the soul called Khader Adnan except we know it was born to resist. Khader Adnan was born to resist injustice and humiliation and to fight oppression. He was born to sacrifice his life for the sake of others. Khader Adnan was described by the prophet Muhammad (sa) and prophet Issa (sa) as a stranger to this world. Khader Adnan is a man who refused to sell eternity for a temporary life of ease. Khader Adnan is a man who stored his treasures where his heart is. Khader Adnan is what Imam Khomeni described as a beautiful madman. Khader Adnan is a man who sacrificed his life in a most painful and selfless way, on behalf of every human soul that is struggling for its freedom, dignity and justice. Khader Adnan is a martyr. Now, count the number of such human beings that have existed in our lifetime, and it will become immediately apparent why Khader Adnan matters.

May Allah bless Khader Adnan and give us the courage to make his life and his sacrifice valuable and meaningful to those he will leave behind. Viva the resistance! Viva Khader Adnan! Viva Palestine!

The writer is the Founder and President of the National Association of Muslim American Women. The author is also head of the International Assoc. for Muslim Women and Children, an accredited NGO with the UN Division on the Rights of the Palestinians. She is a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).

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